The Grenada gazette. (Grenada, Miss.) 1885-18??, 1887-07-09
AMgR,cAws ABROAD


Generally Accepted Statlstic&
This matter of American travel.
more especially as to the volume OF It.
is greatly misunderstood in America
and even BY the tourists themselves
writes a Rome correspondent.
Like the Dutchman's pig that moved
about with such celebrity that he wa
counted several times, and thus greatly
Increased the aggregate of the litter,
the American tourist is liable to several
onumerations. He tears himself away
from his business for q few weeks. He
must do Europe III q given time and be
back At his desk at the day and hour
appointed. So he keeps moving. He
is recorded once At least in every city
he visits. Sometimes he is recorded
several times in the same city-at his
hotel, his bank. at an American ex-
change, perhaps. and at a club. This
makes four distinguished Americans
out Of a single humble individual. But
this is not all. He takes 3 certain city
let US say Paris-as his h%eadquar-
ters, and makes transient visits to 1t
several times during the same season.
All this gives Q pretty sum in addition
which the PARKWAY journalist in
America works out with that talent for
exaggerated mathematics in which
imagination often plays SO important
a part. This young mans fancy
lightly turns to these elaborate prob
lens in the spring. Then it is pub
lished in the New York papers and
telcgraphed all owe America. that all
outgoing steamers are crowded; that
every berth is engaged several months
ahead, and that never before was there
such a tide of travel setting toward
Europe, The estimate of the number
of going abroad begins, perhaps, at So
900 and runs up to over 100, 900 in the
more imaginative newspapers. 1t
would appear to the unthinking as if
free America were being ~depopulated
in favor of the monsrchies of the old
world.
II will do no harm to let a little light
into these high-pressure statistics,
though it is really a fact that a great
many Americans do go abroad annual
~. probably five times or ten times as
many as there would be Of any other
nation situated 50 far from the various
European Meccasto which the d~evotees
of travel are wont to make pilgrim
ages. The season of the great Euro
pcan hegira is brief. 1t scarcely be-
gins before late in May or June. and
the pressure is over by August. There
are more or less persons always going,
but this represents the bulk Of the early
season travel. Did any of these light
ming calculators ever stop to think how
many steamers it would take, rs travel
goes, to carry across the Atlantic ever
50. 900 passengers. 1t would require
100 steamers, %supposing every one a l.
ried 800 American tourists. How many
steamers carry of this class in exces
of this number, or for how long
= time is this average maintained?
For few weeks only, if at all, and most
of them sail from New York. Ameri-
cans are by no means the only pas
sengers who travel by the Atlantic
steamers, A large proportion are En-
glish, while there are always repre-
,enta,ives of every European nation.
1t would hardly be necessary to go
further than these suggestions to cx-
plode the fiction, but Paris may be
taken as a further illustration.
1t goes without saying that all good
Americans who 60 to Europe go to
Paris, unless the force of circumstances
is too strong for them. 1t is barely
possible that a thousand or two may
be found in England Oh on the conti-
ncnt every year who are unable to
visit the French capital. These are in
England on business; are of German
descent, and make a visit to the faith
grland; arc medical students at Berlin
or elsewhere in Germany, Of 60 by the
Dutch OF Belgian lines to Antwerp or
Amsterdam to do the low countries,
and 60 up the Rhine. They are a
small fraction of the great whole. The
rest usually go direct from New York
to London, where they stay a
few days before departing for
Paris, or they choose the Havre line
which, since the new steamers have
been placed on it, is convenient and
expeditions. 1 received not long ago
various estimates of the number Of
Americans coming to Paris every year,
taken all of them, as the professional
statisticisns say, from the most reliable
sources, such as Paris journalists,
steamship agents, persons connected
with travelling agencies, and Others
competent 10 give them. The mini.
mum estimate is Is, 600. the maximum
40 600 The correct figure would prob